Long Range and Local Fishing Update

The Excel reached her fishing grounds and made her first posting yesterday. Today, April 22, she posted the first photo, of regular angler Bob Orth. He got his big fish (no weight was given) on a flylined mackerel, as shown in this shot from Facebook.

“We’ve spent the last two days traveling down in beautiful weather. Everyone here is rigged up and ready to start fishing. Hopefully the tuna gods are on our side. We will report with pictures.”

Royal Star

Brian Sims has the helm of the Royal Star, out on an 11/17 day, fly down/fly back trip. Here is his posting from yesterday.

“Today was a little slower than we hoped for although the size average was up. We had two deuces today.

Long time regular Lon Storms caught his first cow ever. Bob “Turbo” Ryan caught the last fish of the day a fat 220-pound fish.”

Local Fishing

Scott Willis at H&M Landing reported a catch of 11 Yellowtail, 37 Rockfish, two Sheephead, two Ling cod,” for the trip April 21 aboard the ¾ day boat Malihini.

“Hi Anglers!” said the posting, with a new photo added. “A little news about the Red Rooster III. We are in dry dock at this time! We will keep you posted with any updates and further boat work related news! “Red Rooster III Team” “Calmly Went To Work”

This Royal Star posting was dated April 20:

“Today was one of those days when a good fishing move did not pay big dividends in fish in the well. We had steady action for a couple of hours in the morning, but lost quite a few to the tax man. We then trolled up some wahoo and then took off for greener pastures. We gave this place a thorough check and leave secure in the knowledge that this was not the right time for this area. Our weather continues to be excellent.”

On April 19, it said:

“Today we started off with a couple of handfuls of tuna between 70 and 176 pounds. When the bite ended we went looking for wahoo. After a couple of hours of good wahoo fishing we went back to concentrating on tuna with limited success.

Overall not exactly what we were hoping for, but the wahoo put a smile on everyone’s face.” Skipper Brain Sims of the Royal Star posted this April 18: “Today we got off to a good start, catching a mixed grade of yellowfin tuna from 70 to 216 pounds. This experienced group of anglers calmly went to work and made the most of the opportunities. Our weather is beautiful with just enough wind in the afternoon to effectively fly a kite.”

Bill Roecker owns FishingVideos.com, where he posts daily reports from the long range fleet and other sources, and Oceanic Productions, which published his book At The Rail: Long Range Fishing. The book, Bill's Sportfishing Calendar and his Standup Fishing DVDs are for sale on his Website and in most southern California fishing stores.